ied over from
yesterday.

"Praise God, the wedge is in!" she cried.

Father held her tight, stroked her hair, and began smiling without
having the least idea why, but he very well knew that whatever pleased
her like that was going to be good news for him also.

"What has happened, mother?" he asked.

"Mr. Pryor came over about the road and bridge tax, and oh Paul! I've
said every word to him I've been bursting to say from the very start.
Every single word, Paul!"

"How did he take it?"

"Time will tell. Anyway, he heard it, all of it, and he went back
carrying a load of things to plant. Only think of that! Once he
begins planting, and watching things grow, the home feeling is bound to
come. I tell you, Paul, the wedge is in! Oh I'm so happy!"

CHAPTER XIV

The Crest of Eastbrooke

"Sow;--and look onward, upward,
Where the starry light appears,--
Where, in spite of coward's doubting,
Or your own heart's trembling fears,
You shall reap in joy the harvest
You have sown to-day in tears."

"Any objections to my beginning to break ground on the west eighty
to-day?" asked Laddie of father at breakfast Monday morning.

"I had thought we would commence on the east forty, when planning the
work."

"So had I," said Laddie. "But since I thought that, a very particular
reason has developed for my beginning to plow the west eighty at once,
and there is a charming little ditty I feel strongly impelled to
whistle every step of the way."

Father looked at him sharply, and so, I think, did all of us. And
because we loved him deeply, we saw that his face was a trifle pale for
him; his clear eyes troubled, in spite of his laughing way. He knew we
were studying him too, but he wouldn't have said anything that would
make us look and question if he had minded our doing it. That was
exactly like Laddie. He meant it when he said he hated a secret. He
said there was no place on earth for a man to look for sympathy and
love if he couldn't find it in his own family; and he never had been so
happy since I had been big enough to notice his moods as he had been
since all of us knew about the Princess. He didn't wait for father to
ask why he'd changed his mind about the place to begin.

"You see," he said, "a very charming friend of mine expressed herself
strongly last night about the degrading influence of farming,
especially that branch of agriculture which evolves itself in a furrow;
henc